Gold and Silver became the darling of investors between 2003 and 2006 when their values increased rapidly, with silver especially running up from around $2.50/oz to $14/oz. However, in the last year or so, the value of silver has ranged between $10 to $14/oz - which has caused speculators to move out of silver into more volatile securities, in the process moving silver and silver shares into stronger hands. This has permitted the formation of a strong base for silver and silver stocks based on which the next phase of the bull market will be launched. And once again, the most money will be made by the best small cap silver stocks, followed by large cap silver stocks. Both of these will outstrip gold and gold shares in their gains owing to the expected greater rise in price of the silver metal.

When searching for the best small cap silver stocks, you are essentially looking at junior silver mining companies. Mining companies in general have several issues that a long term investor must carefully consider:

• Experience of the company in prospecting and mining precious metals, and specifically silver. If there is no ongoing experience in these areas, it becomes crucial that it has extremely experienced management to guide it to success.
• Ability to leverage additional metals that may get mined while getting silver out of the ground.
• Great labor-management relationships - since mining is more labor-dependent than most industries.
• Political stability in the country in which the company has its primary operations.

The best small cap silver companies then tend to become targets for the larger firms who want to quickly add to their total production.

It is worth noting that the kind of environment we have today is what you need for those types of mergers, since the price of silver is expected to continue its upward rise for a few more years at least.

There are many small caps silver stocks today, all expecting to capitalize on the next phase of the silver bull market. So you have to be careful when looking to invest in them - our best suggestion is that you take the help of some outstanding silver investment newsletters like Silver Investor by David Morgan to help you in your journey to investment success.